Rachel Carruthers
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Rachel Carruthers (c. 1970-1989) is a fictional character featured in the films Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), both of which are sequels to what is probably the most influential slasher film, John Carpenter's Halloween (1978). Rachel is the foster sister of Jamie Lloyd, who is the niece of serial killer Michael Myers. She was portrayed by actress Ellie Cornell.
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[edit] Early life
Rachel Carruthers is the only child of Richard and Darlene Carruthers. Little else is known about her life before late October of 1988. However, through her own admission, Laurie Strode- Jamie's mother- did baby-sit her when she was younger. Because Rachel was about age eight in 1978, it is possible she was a classmate to both Tommy Doyle and Lindsey Wallace.
[edit] Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
In November 1987, Jamie's parents Laurie Strode and Jimmy Lloyd were (apparently) killed in an automobile accident. Laurie's friends Richard and Darlene became Jamie's foster parents. Rachel is the older than Jamie by nine years and became a surrogate sister to her.
At 4:00 AM on Monday October 31, 1988, Rachel sees Jamie is again wide awake in the living room. This is the fourth night the young girl has had difficulty sleeping. Rachel insists that Jamie return to bed. Jamie questions if Rachel loves her. Rachel answers that she does indeed love her. But Jamie wonders if her adoptive sister loves her as a real sibling. Rachel admits that she and Jamie are not real sisters, but that she does not love her any less because of that.
At first, she sees Jamie as a problem to her plans with her boyfriend Brady. Throughout the movie, Rachel takes Jamie out to pick an outfit to go trick-or-treating in (which happens to be a clown costume which looks very much like the one her uncle wore), flirts with Brady, and eventually protects Jamie from her uncle and seeming assists in killing him.
[edit] Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
The character of Rachel only makes a quick appearance in Halloween 5 before being killed off and having her role as Jamie's protector taken over by her friend Tina. At the beginning of the movie, Michael stalks Rachel around her house after she gets out of the shower and eventually kills her by stabbing her in the chest with a pair of scissors. Near the end of the movie, Rachel's body makes one final appearance in the attic that Michael chases Jamie into.
[edit] Erasure from the series
In a move that rankled many fans but delighted others, director Steve Miner retconned the series with Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), revealing that Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) had faked her own death in order to avoid detection by Michael. She then fled to Summer Glen, [Northern] California, under an assumed identity, along with her son, John Tate (Josh Hartnett). In addition, the events of parts 4-6 are never explained, and thus never happened. The next sequel, Halloween: Resurrection (2002), follows this new continuity.
[edit] Trivia
- Ellie Cornell did not initially plan on returning as Rachel in Halloween 5 but agreed to with the understanding that her character would be killed off early in the film.
- Ellie Cornell requested that the writers change her form of death. Originally, Michael was to stab Rachel in the throat with scissors. But Miss Cornell felt that ending her character in this way would have been too gruesome. In the finished film, she is instead stabbed in her left breast just below her shoulder.
